Why? Because fans were scolded that the USA hoops braintrustknew what it was doing this time, yet the team STILL lost.

(And didn't just lose, but lose to the most random of teams – not an NBA'er among them, a detail which should scare the bejeezus out of anyone who thinks USA Hoops has some birthright to be the world's best.)

USA Hoops fulfilled its destiny all right:

As "USA Oops."

-- D.S.

P.S.: This just confirms that Coach K is a mediocre game coach, at best. Oh, sure, he's a "leader," not a coach. Actually, now that's blatantly obvious.

P.S. 2: Wow, of all the days to begin without my column on ESPN.com... this is precisely the timing of a huge story that would have let me be the first on the site with an obliterating indictment of USA Hoops management.

"I think you and I, along with many others, knew this was coming. Coach K finally even admitted it was likely his fault they lost. He has never been able to coach in tough games (just ask Jim Calhoun)."

I just wanted to let you know it is weird without reading the Daily Quickie on my unofficial 8 am break. Hopefully someone else picks it up and can let it continue. Cnnsi.com’s Scorecard Daily section seems like a perfect fit

Love the column, but you're a moron if you think Coach K. is not a great game coach. The man is a winner, pure and simple. No other way to look at it. Greece went on a fantastic scoring streak. It's the kind of thing that happens in a single elimination tournament.

Should Team USA have lost? Of course not! Is Coach K partly to blame? Of course he is. Does this mean he is not one of the greatest coaches to ever? No fucking way. It's easy to pile on after a man puts up a loss. You should be better than that...

Once again, the USA does not put the BEST TEAM on the floor. I don't know if it's possible to do that anymore, because the NBA does not translate well to the international style of hoops. I always felt the rest of the world would catch up to the USA in basketball, but I didn't expect it so SOON.

TEAM USA's best chance is to eliminate NBA players from the team. I have long felt that college hoops is a far superior game. Too much 'showtime' in the NBA and not enough strong fundamentals. Let the NCAA champs represent the U.S in international play or put together a college hoops all-star team. I guarantee we'll put a better product on the floor if we go that route.

You can't blow a 12 point lead period, but certainly not to the likes of Greece! On Mike and Mike they were saying how Fran Fraschilla was saying this was a step in the right direction. I guess it is after the last world championships, but I agree Coach K is not a good in-game coach. As Jake said, and as a UConn alum, I can tell you Jim Calhoun ALWAYS out coaches K.

Speaking of UConn by the way, the crowd at Rentschler Field was awful last night. Get off your hands and make some noise on 3rd down for God's sake. It's all the big donors going to be seen...eating their prawn sandwiches. Give me a break, it's pathetic.

Of all the days not to have a quickie. I think that for a team that has been playing for a few weeks this isnt that bad but I think the NBA needs to realize that it might not be best to send their players to play in world basketball since its completely different that american basketball. If this team was going to play world basketball for the next two years then there would be hope but they are going to go back to playing NBA ball and obviously that isnt working for this type of competition. Well see what happens in 08 but maybe its time to have a team completely dedicated to playing world style basketball and not spliting time with playing in the NBA.

I miss the quickie. Anyways, you also missed out on another story. Did you see that tennis match last night etween Agassi and Baghdatis? I havent watched a tennis match in 5 years, but ha was incredible. I think everyone in America wants Andre to win this thing, and I'm really looking foward to a potential match with Andy Roddick.

Actually, I think this is exactly what Team USA needed. Now we know we have to retool, we have incentive for more players (re: Kobe) to play in '08, and we have guys playing together some. Maybe I'm ignorant here, but I think the US will win gold in 2008.

Just kind of shows you the state of the US basketball player's mentality rather than the system. These guys are coddled from middle school on and they don't give a crap about playing for the US- they are just hoping they don't get hurt so it doesn't screw up their RBK show deal. Enjoy your bronze medal guys if you can actually win this weekend.

I love it! I can't stand Duke and always believed coach K was overrated. He may be able to get the best talent in the country, but that doesn't mean he can coach in game situations. It's amazing that people forget everything when you win a national title. Roy Williams was the same way at KU. Always recruited well, had dominant teams that would choke every single year in a the big game.

I say go back to the college kids and drop the NBA players from USA basketball. The NBA game has become an individual sport, not a team game. If we're going to lose let's at least let the college kids do it so people can have the built in excuse that we aren't sending our "best". DUD to the NBA.

Which is bigger, the Worlds or the Olympics? Coach K can't shoot the 3s for the guys, he can only call the plays and put the guys out there. We're seeing the team play together much better than in the past, but we're still lagging in the skills that translate to the international game -- as opposed to the "lets send four guys to one side and have our star drive" mentality that makes the NBA so boring.

Dan this loss reminded me of Duke's loss to Georgetown this year were they got backdoored to death and K did not make any adjustments on defense. I am usually one of the biggest defenders of all things Duke and Coach K. But recently it seems that he has been more conservative in how he coaches games. I don't know if it is because he did not have the athletes the last couple of years and his offense consisted of setting a screen for JJ and him shooting not very creative. He may be overrated but he does have 3 National titles, he will probably end up with the most wins ever. I still don't think he is as overrated as Dean Smith who had way more talent over the years but only won the title twice and both times it was because of a mental lapse by the other team.

Somebody please tell me why the "international rules" are different from the NBA rules, and why we have to play by these rules? If the USA invented basketball, and the USA's NBA is considered the premier place to play basketball, then why don't these international teams come and play big boy basketball using our rules. If Greece is so good, why don't some crappy NBA team sign the entire squad to win the title next season?

The problem really dates back to David Stern. He had a vision of what basketball should be. How it should be about dunking and flash and his perception that, that's what fans want. But the problem is a team that just knows how to play basketball and is reasonably talented is always going to beat a team of athletes with talent. It's why many fans have turned their attention away from the NBA it's because it's not real basketball anymore. USA will continue to fail the further the NBA goes down the tubes and trust me it's not going to get better it's going to get worse. It's so engrained in the youth systems that there is no end in sight. You could more shooters on the court and that would help, but it doesn't help them play defense right or be in the right spots on offense.

Ok, ya damn Coach K haters. Enough! He wasn't the one heaving up ugly 3s, he wasn't the one who shot 59% from the line, and he wasn't the one that couldn't play defense (pick and rolls all night, 63% shooting, are you kidding me?).

The guys just sucked out there. What's K supposed to say? Play better defense? Stop airballing from 25 feet? What the hell?

Come on, you guys love calling yourselves "World Champs", but when you actually have to play other countries and lose, suddenly it’s not important. It’s not our game,it's the worlds fault, FIBA rules, horrible refs (actually true, but not worse than NBA officiating), send the college kids, stop competing if you can't win? What's that? This is your game, how can you not care? How can ANY pro baller not want to represent their country? If Manu or Gasol pulled a Kobe, he couldn’t go back home…Some of you got it right, it is Stern’s fault, and sending the NBA champs would probable translate in a championship. The reason team USA has no chemistry is because you start from scratch every time, a new team for every event. Argentina has had the same team for years, the same for Spain, Greece, etc.The NBA is still the best league out there, but it’s been headed in the wrong direction for years, if Stern really cared he could turn it around, and hoops world domination would be yours again.

Not surprised at all by this result. Greece were recently European Champions and the US has to realize that the world has caught up to them. They play "TEAM" basketball, a skill which is sorely missing in today's NBA players who can't hit a shot inside of 10 feet.

If I recall correctly, the Hawks beat the Spurs one game last season. Does that mean the Hawks were a better team than the Spurs? So, Greece beats the USA in one game...a game in which Greece shoots lights-out. I don't see how that equates to catastrophic failure for USA hoops. As for those questioning the heart of this USA team's players--do you have some special powers of perception the rest of us don't? How can you possibly know what's in their hearts. Seemed to me they really wanted it, but had a bad night. My guess is that if the USA played Greece again tomorrow, Greece would NOT shoot 60-plus percent and the USA would end up putting on a show.

Meanwhile, as I return to planet Earth...The plain truth is you can't expect to take 12 players who have never played together and expect to build them into a TEAM in just a few weeks, no matter how talented each individual player might be. The USA may NEVER win another international title simply because we as a society (not just in basketball) place such a high priority on INDIVIDUAL accomplishment. It would take an extraordinary group of players and coaches, each willing to sacrifice (or at least delay) his own future success, to commit several years to TEAM USA. Even if such a group were to be assembled, would we as fans really care? Or, would we still pay more attention to the NBA?

If you didn't see this coming ... get your yearly physical done and have them start with a head exam ...

1 - I agree that this team needs to blend ... a month together won't cut it ... Beijing will be the real test if this team is kept together ... although changes are necessary

2 - Coaching is a factor ... Coach K is a motivator ... my pick to coach this team ... Phil Jackson he's a proven winner and a motivator ... the triangle offense for Team USA to breakdown all those zone defenses they see would be a big upgrade

3 - Players ... Team needs more straight up defenders ... not ACC alumni (ex: Battier, Jamison, Paul) ... and 1 or 2 quality Centers ... other teams run layup drills every game it seems ... Who are the shot blockers on this team ?

Coah K haters, please shut the F - up! This is NOT Coach K's fault. If Team USA had taken the Gold and somebody posted here that Coach K deserves all the credit for the win, you stupid SOB's would go ape shit and provide a loooong list of reasons why Coach K "had nothing to do with it" and how "it's the players that win games", etc., etc., etc.

All you Duke haters make me laugh. All they do is succeed and all you can do about it is hate them from the sidelines. Truly sad...

No shame in losing to a solid team. Any good team can be beat in a one and out contest against a hot team on any given day. The only shame is in missing so many free throws and 3's. Team USA needs the 3 "S"s more Seasoning, more Shooters and better Scouting. They need to know what every player/team likes to do and divise ways to counter what they like to do best.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.